Sweet and sour
by Inoko-chi
Summary: Zatsuki Kana is a super tall girl, who's a basketballholic. Middle school ended up being not her cup of tea. She gets rejected by the one she loves and loses people's trust. Will her luck improve in high school? Read and find out ! Pairings: AomineOC (maybe slight KagamiOC...will see in later chapters) R&R. (I can't name things even if a life depended on it..I'm sorry.)
1. 1 The past

disclaimer: I don't own KNB or its characters. The only one that does is my OC.

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_Chap 1: Introduction_

_That smooth, tanned skin that covered his tough, strong muscles; his pure and unpredictable movements, by which the orange ball seemed to almost move on its own, made her want to watch him the whole day and night. And the aura of joy and bold love for the game almost hypnotically invited her to join in._

_Zatsuki Kana fell in love with Teiko's ace the first moment she laid her eyes on him. Call it love at first sight or something of the sort, but she only saw it as long foreseen fate._

….

Zatsuki..let's say that she wasn't an exceptionally girly middle school student and her almost world-record breaking height wasn't exactly helping her to look girlier. In fact, most people thought of her as a guy. Especially since the girl was a late bloomer and happened to be taller than most guys in her class..school...city(?).

Why was the world unfair? She wondered for the thousandth time, remembering her unrequited love's childhood friend. Zatsuki wanted to be like the pink-haired girl, who every guy was obsessed over. That pink, long hair; those big, round, pink eyes with long, curly eye-lashes; that unnecessarily big chest; her tiny waist and perfect height (not too tall, not too short) and her perfect grades. It was too much for our heroine. How can a girl be so perfect?! There was no way in-

"ZATSUKI!" The teacher yelled right into our heroine's ear, irritation growing noticeably on his face. The ginger girl sprang up instinctively, causing the adult to sweat drop from sudden growth in height difference. Though, having gotten used to it by now, he snapped from the shock and re-asked the question coldly, "What's would be the velocity of the car if it drives 15 km in 30 minutes?"

The girl blinked and stared, she had no idea what in the world velocity or any other physics term meant. In fact, she didn't really know much of anything besides basketball. It's not like she wanted to rebel against school or something of the sort. No, she just found it way too complicated to elaborate. And studying made her want to sleep all the time, because her brain could handle the amount of information that was being pressed into them. It was just way too much.

After a long sigh, the physics teacher went back to the front of the class, commenting that Zatsuki should stop sleeping in class and try to at least listen for once.

"I did try..." she muttered under her breath and sat back down, falling asleep after several minutes.

….

"Ahaha~, you had to see your face, Kana!" Her classmate exclaimed in high delight when the class finished, hitting her on the shoulder. "Yeah, yeah...Kyo-kun...though you're not the one to talk. You've been drawing in your notebook through the whole class, haven't you?" The girl replied with a similar mockery, raising her eye-brows to prove her point.

'Kyo-kun' gave his friend the glare. It, being the glare, usually meant that it was time to quit the subject they were at.

"Alright...don't get upset. I didn't mean any harm. Though I don't see why you're hiding it. They're really prett-" The glare went to level two, "Fine, let's go play then. The girl's team doesn't have any practice today, so I'm free~!" "You're a basketballholic, you know that? Well, it's better than having you talk about my hobbies..." Kyo-kun relaxed his face to a mutual happiness. "Treats on the loser~!" Zatsuki jogged away, inviting her friend to a small running competition.

….

"You-" Kyo-kun huffed several times, "-are-" He couldn't stand straight anymore, "-monstrous." He finished stating his fact before breaking into another fit of deep breathing, "I can't believe a girl can have so much stamina!

"I can't help it." The ginger girl replied in guilt, looking at her exhausted friend. Basketball was her soul and body. The only thing that made her comfortable in her own skin and she didn't mind that...at all.

After shooting another basket in, the girl sat down together with her friend, talking about the last night's basketball game. It was very close to the finals of the year's national game and Zatsuki just couldn't stand still whenever the subject arouse and nothing ever stopped her from talking about it, even if the person she was talking to didn't even try to listen. That is, until a certain you-know-who happened to pass by.

It was as if the whole world stopped and he was only thing moving. "Kana." Kyo-kun whispered. Getting no response, he tried a bit louder, "Kana!" Absolute ignorance. "KANA!" "WHAT?!" Ah, finally.

"You're a lost case." The guy sighed in the pitifulness of his friend.

"Wh-wha?! I..I'm not!" She tried to decline, but her obvious hot-pink cheeks kind of made it obvious that she was.

"Well, forget it. He's not gonna date somebody like you, _especially_ after being together for years with a hot childhood friend...Momoi-chan's so pretty today too..." The teenage boy stared at Teiko's manager. "Yeah, guess what? She ain't either. Not after..._especially _not after being together with a hot childhood friend like _Aomine_." Zatsuki gave the devil's smile to her friend.

They were both lost cases and they knew it.

Sulking together, the duo sighed in sync.

"Well...wanna go grab something?" Kyo-kun offered, noticing the bitter sadness that was growing inside his friend's eyes. Unlike the girl, he, though pretty close, wasn't exactly suffering from any deeper feelings. And to add to his troublesome friend's pitiful love, he heard about the tension that has started growing inside their school's basketball team. The rumour were saying something about Aomine Daiki getting stronger and more arrogant.

On the other hand, the guy didn't see the reason for them to get worried, he meant that the whole Generation of Miracle's were all ridiculously strong and arrogant little-big brats to the very core of their souls. What ever worse could happen than them being who they are?

"Yeah..Let's go." the ginger girl stood up clumsily, stretching while doing so.

"Kana..have you been getting fatter lately?" Kyo-kun suddenly asked, looking at his friend. "Wha?! What kind of a question..oh nevermind. No, I haven't." Zatsuki tried to act girlish and make him feel guilty for asking something like that, but couldn't. She didn't care about weight. And even if she did, it would be impossible for her to get the 'perfect size' anyway. Her height just wouldn't allow her to get that perfect princess look. "Why ask?" "No...it's nothing. Just thought that you've been actually playing a bit more human lately...and your shirt isn't just hanging from your shoulders flat any more...It's quite natural to think you've gained a kilo or two.."

Zatsuki just stared blankly at her friend. She couldn't believe that even her closest buddy forgot that she was a girl.

"Alright, don't look at me like that! How am I suppose to remember something so irrelevant?!"

"Yeah, whatever you say...let's go, I'm hungry." The girl just turned, letting her semi-long pony-tail fly a bit in the air, giving her neck a chance to some fresh air.

...

Teikou's team was suffering even more from the tension that was growing inside it due Generation of Miracle's over-whelming strength. Zatsuki's depression wasn't exactly helping much. She was one of the few people that turned the team into a brighter state after several minutes of coming in.

Her depression came from her disappointment. The girl thought that the days she would grow to look more like a girl would be her happiest...yeah, well. It wasn't. In fact, it was probably the worst days in her life. At least she hoped life wouldn't get any worse than that.

Maybe it was slightly her fault. Just a tiny bit. But otherwise!

Who knew that having a chest bounce like two basketballs _and_ attached to the body was _sooo_ uncomfortable?! Why didn't anybody ever tell her about that?! And the fact that it also made her back hurt like hell froze over...twice?!

Though being smart and all, she gulped down her uncomfortable pain in every part of her body, went ahead and used the opportunity to confess.

...

"Whyyyyy?!" Kyo-kun rubbed his temple with his index finger, and giving another tissue to his friend. The girl took it and blew as hard as possible, which probably resulted in some snot falling on her own clothes.

"B-but...he rejected with such a f-forward face-" "Don't tell me what happened. I was there, genius." The boy sighed and stood up and sat next to his crying companion, "Look, you knew that it was impossible from the start. Why did you even try, is my question?" "I -I just wanted for us to become rivals...b-but he said that he doesn't care for playing against girls..." The girl went into another fit of salty tears, "What happened to all the times we played together then?! Doesn't he remember already?!"

"Oh, jesus, you don't know how to act sweet, but you know how to cry like a huge drama queen?! This is ridiculous!" Kyo-kun couldn't handle his temper any longer. He hardly ever saw Zatsuki crying...and this was not something that he looked forward to seeing again, "Just forget about it, it's not like that arrogant brat is the last person on earth."

"B-but..." The girl's soaking caramel eyes looked at him with desperation. She didn't know what to do about all the crazy thoughts that she kept on getting.

And as if a part of her died that day, she felt completely empty without much care about anything around her. Even basketball stopped appealing to her.

...

"Zatsuki-chan/Zatsu-chi!" Her team mates cried after her, as she walked away from the field. "Tch. That damn nuisance, I thought this would happen...alright! Stop whining! We might have lost our ace, but I'm going to break all of your necks if that's going to stop us from winning the Tournament and become champions! You hear me?!" Teiko's girl team's captain yelled in a commanding and threatening manner. She might have been a short 150 cm girl, but everybody feared her, probably even more than her brother, Akashi Seijuro. Although she even had two huge, crimson, soft pony-tails that were suppose to look cute, they were doing everything but that.

"H-hai..." The girls gulped and tried to concentrate more intensely.

...

"Hey, did you hear?"

"Yeah, Zatsuki Kana walked off from the finals."

"Shh...no so loud. I heard she became a delinquent and is hanging out with these dangerous-looking guys now."

"No way! That tomboy?! Well...I guess it's not too weird."

"Suits her right. I never liked that ugly giant to begin with."

Kyo-kun couldn't help but over-hear the rumours that were going around the school. It wasn't like he wanted to go against all these people that were judging his friend. The boy kind of understood why they were talking like that. He, himself, was disappointed in Zatsuki, when he saw what happened on the field. And when he tried to question her, the girl's only response was, "It was boring." But he didn't ask her any longer, since he saw those same soulless eyes that he has been seeing in all of the Generation of Miracles lately.

...

"It's going to be alright, nii-chan." Zatsuki reassured her older brother, "I'm alright now. I won't scare you again, I promise. Bye, worry-wart, try to enjoy your life in Germany... love you too" The girl disconnected her phone from the call, sighing.

"He'll never let me be, will he?" She asked, with a smile. He was the one that pushed her to high school after all. And tomorrow was going to be her first day and the beginning of a new life for her.

"Bring it on!" She punched the air in front of her with a grin and eyes sparkling in excitement.

* * *

Hello people! Actually I began writing this story before...but then I didn't know what to do with it and deleted it. But now I wrote it again, since I just couldn't part with Zatsuki Kana~.

This chapter is only a brief introduction to the actual story. I hope it's not too weird and dramatic...I tried to make it mild, but I couldn't obviously do it completely.

The funny thing is, I just noticed that 'Zatsuki' is actually the same thing as 'Satsuki' only with a 'Z'...I swear that was not done on purpose. I made the name up completely randomly. Though 'Kana' is a bit of a different story. In finnish (Finland, yes, us, the northern people) 'kana' means chicken. And since in KNB the characters are sometimes represented as round cute birds, I thought it would be appropriate for Kana to be a little ginger chick. ...It was pretty funny when I thought of it...yeah, please don't judge me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And if you want more, it would be very much appreciated if you give a review about what you thought of it, so that I know on what I should lean more on.

Well, see you later... Oh, and I'm a pretty busy person, so the chapters might not be uploaded as fast as I would like them to be sometimes...Just warning. I kind of feel guilty, since I haven't been able to write my other unfinished stories...I'll get to them eventually too.

-your truly,

the lazy author.


	2. 2 Getting in

disclaimer: I don't own KNB or any of the other characters, except for my OC

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Chapter 2:

Getting in

On the first day, Zatsuki's dreams probably collapsed a tiny bit. She didn't quite expect to become friends with girls all of a sudden, but still, she thought that she would be at the very least become acquaintances with some of them.

Standing in the middle of the wreckage, the ginger girl wondered around, looking at different clubs that were present.

_'Cooking, football, newspaper, sewing, volleyball, baseball, rugby, shougi, swimming, literature...'_ She was reading the labels, trying to find the one that she was really interested in. Of course, she knew that a new school like Seirin wouldn't really have the thing for her...but on the other hand, that was exactly what she was after.

And just like that, she heard a bunch of guys shouting "Join the basketball team!"

_'Ah~, that's it!_' The girl's caramel eyes sparkled as if she just saw the sweetest candy in the world. "I hope this works..." She muttered, looking at her boy's uniform, which she 'borrowed' from Kyo-kun, who 'happened' to get sick exactly on the day of club choosing. It was a bit short for her, but because of her rather feminine features, the broad uniform was clinging on to her just-just to not make it look suspicious.

"Excuse me, I would like to join the team." The girl tapped the taller boy on the shoulder to get his attention. Sadly, even if he was the tallest from the three guys that were advertising their team, he still was a few centimetres shorter than our heroine, making her want to drop a tear.

All three of the team members turned around, gasping at Zatsuki's height. The shortest one of them sprang up to her in delight, "That's great! Just follow me." His cat's like mouth freaked Zatsuki out at first._'How can somebody have that kind of a mouth?',_ she wondered. But little by little, as they kept on crawling through the big crowd of people and go enough time to talk, she found him to be quite the positive and funny guy.

"But seriously, just now there was this scary dude that registered himself on our team...I'm so glad that a nice guy like you is coming too now. Or else I feared the team would become very gloomy...But heh, we seem to be pretty lucky with tall players this year." The guy exclaimed before starting a fit of laughter. Not understanding, the girl just looked at him quizzingly. Well, she figured that questioning it would be rather problematic, since she tried to keep her own identity a secret for as long as possible.

"And here you are." The boy pointed at one table, who's label said 'Boy's basketball'. Zatsuki sweat-dropped, hoping that they won't ask her. She was never asked before, right? Why would they do so now?

"Riko~, I brought another one~." He exclaimed to the small cute girl that was sitting at the table. The ginger girl's eyes sparkled again - what if she could become friends with the manager of the team._ 'And to add to it, she pretty cute~. Not like Satsuki...that flirt.'_ She tried to punch those thought out of her head mentally and concentrate on the event in front of her. Though it wasn't going all too well, since she began thinking of every possible bad thing the poor pink-haired girl ever did. And she found many.

"Another big one, eh? Good job, Koga." The light brunette commented, taking out a paper to sign.

Zatsuki understood that it was a sign for that meant she had to sit down, but since nobody did anything, she kind of froze.

"Hey, newbie, it's alright, don't be nervous. I won't bite. And plus, even if you can't play, you'll learn really quickly with your build." The 'manager' smiled broadly, which instead of reassuring, scared our heroine even more. Though this time, she just moved and sat down without uttering a word.

"I-I'm not exactly a beginner." She mentioned after filing in the form entirely. It was odd for her to be saying those words, since she's been practicing with the guys in Teiko, as if she was a part of the team, it wasn't exactly her first time playing on a guy's team either. Officially, maybe. But street-ball is not all that different. Nonetheless, the girl wasn't sure of anything right now, plus to the huge risk she was taking for going to a guys team. All in all, her thoughts kind of ended getting into a knot that was impossible to untie and that made her head feel even more dizzy than before.

Next to the 'manager' sat a guy in glasses. He wasn't very small, nor very tall...in general he was one of the very few people that Zatsuki described as 'ultimately average'. Anyway, the glasses guy (as the girl ended up nicknaming him) looked at her paper and noticed that she wrote 'Teiko' as her last school, his glasses almost fell from their place due to the extension his eyes grew in.

"Wait, are you from _the_ Teiko school?" He asked shockingly. That was the second paper they saw, which mentioned that school's name. What's with these odd first-years?

"Oh-Oh, yeah! Yeah, I am...though I was benched pretty much all the time. Ok, that means just plainly always... you know, our 'Generation of Miracles' hardly _ever_ took breaks. I just don't really see why they were adorized that much for. If not for their 'talents', they weren't all that great..especially personality wise...A-and sorry for the disappointment. I think all of them went to the top schools all over Japan. So, you don't have to get worried about getting to deal with any of them. I'm sure you'll understand once you meet one of them." The girl broke out of her cautious self and finally began chatting like usual. These people didn't suspect a thing about her being a girl. She was sure of that.

"Well, anyway, I'll see you guys later, right?" She gave them a grin and then ran off.

It was perfect. Her plan was perfect!

Well, she believed that..until their first practice. Boy was it awkward.

...

"ALRIGHT! I'm Seirin's boy's basketball team coach, Aida Riko. Nice meeting you." The cute girl's image split into two in Zatsuki's mind..and that was probably the case for all the other newbies too. She could tell by the way they almost dropped their jaws to the very floor, that they had exactly the same image of a cute and sweet manager, just like her.

Oh well, guess that got cleared up pretty fast.

The next shock was a bit more to take in.

"Take off your shirts!" the coach demanded.

And that was where the ginger girl's trouble began. It would be rather obvious that they would figure out she is actually a girl, if she just take her shirt off. The amount of bands and strength of the sports bra won't exactly save her there.

"You're too stiff, train your flexibility after going out of the bath..." She began lecturing each first-year at a time._ 'The hell?!_' Zatsuki could read on each of their faces. Their cheeks began to shine in the pinkest of pink one by one. It was embarrassing for them to listen to all their faults that they tried to hide so badly. And the tragic bit was that they couldn't understand how a small girl like that read them just with one look. It was scary.

Only she stopped when it was the 'scary dude's' turn. Now our heroine began to get why their senior described him like that.

The guy's huge, trained body was imitating a dangerous aura. Sadly for him, the ginger girl was so used to hanging out with big guys, that something like that didn't really influence her much. Actually, she even became happy of seeing someone like him.

He was taller than her by a tiny bit. He had an aura of an intense player. And his huge muscles showed he wasn't a weakling either.

_'Interesting.'_ the girl thought, growing a tiny smirk on her face from the excitement.

Of course, by then, she completely forgot that she was also next in line for the check.

"Oi, Teiko-newbie! You might've come from an awesome school, but that doesn't mean you can just ignore my instructions." The girl looked up at Zatsuki, almost with a hateful glare, scaring the first-year. _'What did I do to make you hate me?'_ She really wanted to start crying, seeing how the relationship between her and the coach already went downhill without even starting.

"Uh...Umm..." the ginger girl tried to think of what to do. And in that intense situation, only one solution came to her mind.

"Umm, c-can we go in private..." she muttered, feeling the blood rising up to her face rapidly.

"Huh? What's that? Are you embarasse-" "No. That's not the problem. I just-" It was probably not a very good idea to decline. And yeah, she didn't know how more awkward life could get. Though the girl's idea was to just get it over and done with. Easy and efficient, precisely how the girl liked it.

"No, but can we just go in private?" This time, the little rise of seriousness in the ginger girl's voice, made the coach curious of what was going on. "Alright...Listen up! Start warming up, I'll be back in a minute!"

As the two girls went off, the boys looked in suspicion, especially the senior in glasses. It was more like he was staring daggers into Zatsuki rather than just wondering what was going on.

A minute or two later, the team heard a loud girly shriek from the changing rules. Caring for their coach...or more like wanting to know what was going on, all the guys ran at full-speed.

"RIKO, whats happe-" The glasses guy was kicked right out by his own classmate with every strength that she had.

"For gods sake, don't just bark in to the changing room like that!" She lectured the poor guy, who was still trying to recover his injured stomach, while closing the door behind her. "B-But we heard your yell, so -" "Coach! Are you alright?" The rest of the guys came running.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The girl said, crossing her hands, before adding, "Just that the Teiko-newbie won't be joining us." And just with those words she started walking, keeping her head high.

This shocked the rest of the group, wondering just what in the world happened in that changing room that made the girl act like that.  
"Why?" The glasses guy, asked before his classmate completely left the hall. They saw a dark aura growing from the the small brunette, as if a devil possessed her. "I have.." And just as she was about to finish her sentence, our heroine walked out of the changing room, "..Two reasons!" The coach pointed at Zatsuki's chest, making the girl blush and feel even more embarrassed than before.

The guys just stood there, trying to process what was going on. On the other hand, they were trying to keep their nose-bleeds in, as Zatsuki's boobs bounced a bit in the process.

"S-Senpai! You're been unfair!" The ginger girl complained. "Yeah, well. It's a _boy'_s basketball team! How dare you lie to get in?! Let me guess, you're not even from Teiko, are you?!" the brunette fired back, with frustration written all over her face.

"I AM. You never asked if I was on the girl's or the boy's team. Why do you suddenly say that I can't be a part of the team?! You don't even know how I play!"

"I don't care how you play! Dressing up like a guy..that's just.-UGH! Anyway, if I let you play, it will against the rules! No is a no! Hyuga, tell her! This conversation is over!" "But-"

The glasses guy, putting his glasses back to their place, tapped Zatsuki on the shoulder, "Don't bother. Once that girl decides on something, it's impossible to change her mind...I'm sorry, I don't want to get on her bad side either. By the way, I'm the captain, Junpei Hyuga." And as if he was her saviour, the ginger girl took a hold of his hand.

"Really~? So you're the captain? That's so cool! Mayb-" And out of nowhere, she heard a voice from behind her saying, "So lame."

It was the 'scary dude'. Turning around, her caramel eyes met his maroon eyes. And from just one look she could tell that he looked down on her.

"What did you just say?" Her low tone reminded that of a guy, making everyone aware of how they confused the tall girl for a boy.

"La-" Before he finished, Zatsuki already made a quick move and punched him in the face. The violent act was so unexpected, that the tall boy fell off balance, "Look who's talking, scary dude." She smirked, looking down at him..literally. And after getting that she wasn't welcome there any more, the girl walked off in slight disappointment.

Like hell she was going to let that bring her spirit down.

_'I'll definitely get in and then take revenge for what happened to me in middle school.' _

Those dark thoughts meddled in Zatsuki's head, making her even more depressed than before. Although her brother and Kyo-kun kept on lecturing her for her to just stop thinking about Teiko and just move on, the girl felt like she couldn't.

Aomine and the rest of them were just too big part of her life to just simply let it go.

...

The next day, Zatsuki took a deep breath after waking up at the end of the class. She kind of felt stressed out about going to that gym again. _'No, I have to try again!'_ She tried to think positively.

And just when the girl was about to walk in to the gym from the outside door, she heard the rhythm of the ball going back and forth. This made her smile. _'Thank you._' She felt like thanking that basketball for giving her the spirit back.

When the door opened, the whole game stopped.

The team looked at the new comer and couldn't believe their eyes at first. In front of them stood a super tall girl in their school's girl's uniform with straight, ginger, long hair. The skirt was the normal height, but on her it looked much shorter than it ever was suppose to be. It showed way too much of her long, well-trained legs. And the loose, blue sailor shirt didn't do a good job hiding the size of her chest either.

The image was the complete opposite of what it was in the beginning. How could they have ever thought of her as a guy to begin with, was a mystery of its own.

The only one who was unimpressed was the short brunette, who was already tapping her foot in annoyance.

"You! Didn't I tell you that you're not a part of the team any more?!" She shouted, walking towards our heroine in a rather scary manner.

Zatsuki just took a deep breath, "I know. But could you please re-think? Plus, you have nothing to lose, right? Because of my height, nobody ever figures out that I'm a girl, so it's not like you'll be breaking the rules. I just really want to get to a boy's team. I sick of being twice the size of everybody on the team." The girl's pleading voice stopped the coach half way.

"A-and you know, I'm actually not all that bad. Me and my buddies practice everyday. I was considered to be the ace of Teiko's girl's team even."

Ahh, those puppy-eye sparkle technique always worked on everybody...Well, except for one.

"Zatsuki-san, I really think you should stop trying to use your puppy-eye technique, it hardly can be considered cute." A quiet, monotone of a voice spoke out of nowhere.

It took several seconds, but then it got to the ginger girl's brain, "OMFreakinGOD! KURO-KUN?!" She tried to calm down her heartbeat from the shock.

"Yes?" The shorter guy asked with the same facial expression but only raised his eye-brows.

The girl didn't answer straight away, hoping that it was all a horrible bad dream.

"I-it's really you, huh?" She gave up in the end. After slapping herself several times, she was convinced that it was just bad reality, rather than a nightmare.

"I think so." The other replied, still as plain as ever.

The other team members just watched the first-year's lame and rather tense conversation. "Kuroko, you know her?" The coach asked in the end. "You could say something like that." The boy replied.

"Hey! What do you-" "I'm sorry, Zatsuki-san, but I really think it's better for you not to join..." The ocean coloured eyes turned darker, as if any minute and a storm would come. The others watched this intense eye-staring battle that was going on between Kuroko and Zatsuki. Neither of them gave up, until the boy blinked and out of no where sighed.

The girl made a victory stance, "My win!"

_'Was that a staring competition just now?_' The other's thought, sweat-dropping at the sudden break in the intensive atmosphere.

"Anyway~! Come on, Aida-senpai~! Please, let me try! I swear I'll try to be as little of a problem as possible!" Zatsuki's actual personality finally came through. The coach waited for a while, trying to think of the best way to solve the problem. And just like that, a brilliant idea lightened her bulb.

"Alright." The statement made everybody freeze for the moment, was it really all that easy?

"But before that, you'll have to win this fella in a one-on-one." The brunette pointed at the 'scary dude', who was just waiting for some action to finally happen. His maroon eyes almost went on fire. It almost as if he woke up from a sleep when the words 'one-on-one' were pronounced. Finally he'll be able to revenge himself for that smack from the other day.

"That's it?" Zatsuki asked, wondering if there was catch somewhere. In the end, she just brushed it off. Better to get it easy, before their coaches changes her mind.

"Alright. But I gotta warn you, big guy, I'll get mad if you take it easy on me. You don't want another smack on your cute face, right?" The ginger girl smiled evilly at her opponent, who was probably as close to bursting as it was physically possible. "Save the big talk for later, ginger." He replied, before starting to dribble the ball.

Sadly for him, his turn was over before it began. The girl already managed to drop her bag clumsily on the floor and steal the ball before he could even reach his fifth dribble.

"Wha-" And the ball was gone into the hands of the enemy. "Should've been more careful...I did warn you not to go easy on me." She gave him a pitiful look and with a cross-dribble through her legs, she went and threw the ball as if it was the most precious thing in the world. It went in.

_1-0_

"It's not over yet!" The guy stated, dribbling the ball faster and stronger. But even that didn't help. Zatsuki managed to steal it almost unnoticeably. "C'mon, big guy, I'm gonna fall asleep at this rate." The 'big guy' tried stealing it back, but the girl's ball handling happened to be much better. Dribbling through her legs, back, and forward again. It was almost impossible to steal it from her, especially at the speed they were going at.

_'Basketball really is the best!'_ She thought, feeling her heart rate raising again as the two of them kept on running around the whole court.

Unfortunately, the girl noticed the coach glaring in a 'it's time to finish' manner._ 'Buu~, oh well, guess it can't be helped, I'll just finish this_.' Though while she was whining in her head, Zatsuki realized that the ball wasn't in her hands any more. "EHH?!" The ginger girl exclaimed very intellectually, "That's unfair!"

Nevertheless, the 'big guy' already dunked the ball in. He was sweating and panting like crazy, but his scary aura around him somehow began to melt a bit. "Heh, you're pretty good for a girl, but don't start crying when I break your self-confidence." The girl's eyes flew wide open when she suddenly realized how Aomine said exactly the same thing on the first day of their meeting._ 'Oh no you don't!'_ her inner-self yelled.

And as if her body moved on its own, she took the ball and without a second thought went and crashed it into the basket without mercy.

When she was falling down, it was rather obvious how her skirt went completely up. Luckily, she had a pair of tight shorts right under.

After her rough landing, her opponent wanted to express his amazement, but the girl totally ignored him, almost as if he didn't exist.

"Did you see that, Aida-senpai? Was that good enough proof that I'm going to be alright?" The ginger girl jogged to the coach almost growing a dog tail and ears.

The brunette couldn't talk from the shock. She hasn't seen that much skill before. '_Teiko doesn't even take it easy on the girls, huh?_' a sweat dropped down her neck, knowing that after seeing something like this she just couldn't possibly say 'no'.

"Sure, welcome to Seirin's team." Was the only thing Aida Riko ended up saying. But that was enough for our heroine to start producing sparkles out of air. "YAAYY~!" She squealed, hugging and twisting their coach to the point she couldn't breath and stand. "Thank you! Arigatou gozaimasu! I swear I'll do my best!"

Feeling almost sick to the point of throwing up, the little brunette dismissed everyone. Zatsuki tried to ask what was wrong, but Aida just punched her and said to not look down on her. _'What was that about?'_ our heroine wondered, wanting to cry when she realized that their relationship isn't going to improve at all, even if she did become a part of the team.

Taking her forgotten bag up, the ginger, tall girl thoughtlessly walked away, not wanting to talk to anyone any more.

What she didn't think would happen, happened. The red-head behind her looked at her leaving figure in approval. Zatsuki was that something which he was searching for so long in Japan - a worthy player.

"Kagami-kun, I would advise for you to stay on your guard with Zatsuki-san." Kuroko walked past Kagami, making him have a mini heart-attack. The light-blue-head knew what happened to his old shool-mate when the red-head said those exact same lines as his previous light did on the day they met the tomboy. Especially since Kagami's personality matched Teiko's ace's so well.

And just when the boy wanted to have a less dramatic time. He wondered what in the world did he do to God for making him give a burden like that?

* * *

TRAlalalala~ seconds chaps out! Wuhuu~. I'm so doomed...the exams are so close! Whyyyyy?!

Well, I still hope you enjoyed this weird chapter. If you did, please review, so that I know how to continue.

Ciao~,

your truly,

the lazy author.


	3. 3 a spark of rivalry

disclaimer: I don't own KNB, nor its characters. Only my OC is of my own.

* * *

Chapter 3:

_a spark of rivalry_

It was a beautiful morning with the most perfect settings ever possibly imagined. Well... as perfect as school mornings could get, anyway.

"Kyo-kun!" The ginger girl almost jumped on her friend, when she saw him walking to school, listening to some loud metal music through his earphones. "Kana?!" The other asked in shock, taking one of the head-sets off, "Don't jump on people! I might get a heart-attack!" His complaint was rejected by his tall friend who made a counter-argument on, "-But you're not going to get a heart from listening to his mess?" Kyo-kun, just turned away at that point, "It's your favorite mess too." Zatsuki wondered how on earth he knew that...(guess he could've just checked your phone music. Doesn't make sense, no?) But then it hit her. "Wait, is that-" She grabbed the boy's phone without permission and looked at his playing music. Her face showed a "lkdfjdfkdfgj"-look. Meaning that it was too much for her and her brain to handle.

"THEIR NEW ALBUM?! You kiddin me! How did you get it?" She yelled in the end. "Woah, chill, I just found it yesterday..Though my girlfriend doesn't like it. That's why I'm listening to it now. Jeez, why do girls only like cheesy boy bands?" The boy complained in a whining voice. "Yeah, tell me about it." Zatsuki replied, already sending every hard metal song that she found from Kyo-kun's phone to her own.

The guy just looked at his ginger friend, wondering just what in the world twisted her brain so hard to make her so ungirly. Though he took his words back when the girl finally understood what he just said.

"You have a girlfriend?!" She exclaimed, not believing her own ears. "Yes, yes I do, slow-brain. We just started dating a week ago." Kyo-kun replied with pride, "And yes, she's super cute, unlike you." Zatsuki felt like hitting him on the head, but didn't. She understood now that the only one going to stay forever alone was going to be her. Even Kyo-kun, her buddy in love-failure, now had somebody.

"Hey, what's with the sad look? I'm not dying, you know?" The boy punched her in the shoulder, trying to cheer up his friend. After a sigh, the tall girl just sighed in disappointment and answered him, "Sadly... Though I'm happy for you. Never thought a boring guy like you will get a cute girlfriend. Guess life is unpredictable." The sarcastic smile was answered with a smirk. And life was good again. As far as Zatsuki was concerned, at the very least.

That was until Kyo-kun ended up ditching her for every. single. god damn break ever_ possible_ to ditch at, saying that he was going to 'meet his girlfriend'...especially at lunch.

"That little bugger..." The ginger girl complained, walking through the hallway and trying to not concern herself with all the stares she was getting from the people around her. Being in a japanese school, alone _and_ taller than most (actually pretty much all) the people always makes, for some reason, the person to stands out. It wasn't that she was really the unsocial type of person that hated attention. No, on the contrary, the girl loved to be in the middle of it...just when it was for the right reasons. And getting weird stares from every single person at the moment wasn't exactly one of those same 'right reasons'.

That was why, when she spotted a certain ultra red hair, sitting in the classroom, alone, her eyes immediately sparkled.

"Big guy!" She exclaimed from extreme happiness of finally seeing somebody she knows. The exclaim might have sounded_ a bit_ too enthusiastic, but you have to understand, she was pretty desperate.

That caught the red-head's attention straight-away. He sat there, holding his huge 1 metre sandwich at such a perfect position that the boy only had to open his mouth and close it before all those delicious, different types of flavours could be swallowed in one go through his whining throat. And so, you might have probably understood by now what kind of look did the 'big guy' give his team-mate, when she suddenly called out to him with the most ridiculous nickname.

"Sorry, biggy, but glares don't really work on me...sooo-" "Go away." The red-head commanded, before re-doing his ideal eating position. He didn't need friends. Especially not weird tomboys, even the ones that are pretty good in basketball. Yes, he meant that. "That's mean." The girl commented, not even taking one step back or make any other sign of going away, "You're not very social, are you?"

The first-year turned to look at the annoying person that was trying to bug him. His wannabe 'blank stare' made the other burst into a short fit of laughter, "Ahaha~, did you get the Kuro-kun-bug? Or is it that the big baby is still upset about losing to a girl?" Ok, that was cutting edges.

The red-head wasn't going to just let that statement off so easily. He jumped from his seat and glared with such tension that Zatsuki almost regretted going to such length to get him to react somehow.

"That was just pure luck, damn it! Don't even think that you'll be able to pass through me so easily again! (Not that you can even be considered a girl with that length!)" He yelled (the last bit was more of the words that got stuck in his throat. He figured it would be better to keep them for himself...it wasn't like he didn't see tall, female basketball players at their boiling point, for somebody mentioning their lack of femininity, in America.). Everybody in the whole classroom stared at the two of them.

The girl 'tch'-ed, clicking with her tongue. "Follow me to the rooftop, there are less amount of people there." Her low, almost whispering tone, got the other one confused. "What?" "Just come." The happy-go-lucky, almost flirting, tone was gone and got replaced with an irritated walking-off figure. Usually, he didn't ever listen to any commands, unless it was necessary...but the girl in front of him somehow made a point. He already noticed before, that loudness wasn't exactly welcome in the japanese everyday routine. That's why in his two years of living here he always got weird stares, almost every where he went.

"Fine. Just this once." He muttered to himself, promising that he won't follow the girl again.

...

"So, I understand that you were about to challenge me. Isn't that right?" The ginger girl said, almost sounding like she was about to make a business deal. The boy, looked a bit dumb-founded, "How did you...Nevermind, I can take you any time, any day. Hell I'll give ya another chance to win." He placed his hanging hands into his pants' pockets, giving off a wannabe 'I don't give a damn' look.

Their eyes met. Though this time, both of them looked at each other as worthy opponents, rather than looking down at one another. The moment was broken by a sudden quiet, but straight voice.

"...Hello?"

Both of the tall first years widened their eyes in shock and fear. "KURO-KUN?!" The girl turned around, jumping one step back. _'Why does he always do that?!_' She felt like crying out of pity for her own heart, which was jumping out of her ribcage every time this particular blue-haired teen appeared magically.

"I'm sorry for intruding, but you were kind of standing right in front of me, Zatsuki-san." The shorter boy said, standing up from his sitting spot, which really was one metre away from our heroine. His emotionless stare seemed very judgemental and scary to the girl somehow, making her feel sort of smaller than him.

Kagami swallowed his shock not to let out any weird sounds, "What are you doing here?" "Eating lunch." The question was answered without a second thought. That somehow reminded the girl's stomach that it's time to annoy its owner by grumbling. "You know what, big guy? Let's post-pone our game for after school...I haven't eaten anything yet." The guy got shocked at the suggestion, "You were planning to play now?" he asked, hoping that she was joking. There was no way in the world he was going to play on an empty stomach.

Zatsuki blinked in confusion, "Err...you weren't?" And there she was, thinking that she finally got somebody to play with...

"Not on an empty stomach!" He yelled in irritation. The girl got offended and replied with the same amount of excitement, "How was I suppose to know you had an empty stomach?!" "By asking! That's what people do!" "Well, excuse me, genius! But you were the one who didn't want to talk in the first place! I just wanted to be friendly!" "How is offending someone friendly?!" "Stupid! You weren't reacting before!" "Idiot! When somebody is not reacting, it means they don't want to deal with you!"

Kuroko looked from one to the other. He wondered if they realized how silly their fight was. And yet, he had to agree it was totally in their character to do so. Oh well, he didn't particularly feel like getting involved in the ruckus that's why the blue-haired boy just quietly stepped back and enjoyed the show, finishing off the last pieces of his lunch.

Both of the tall teenager's faces were red in colour, matching to some extend their hair. "FINE! You won't have to deal with me! In fact, don't expect me to play with you, stupid red-head!" "It's Kagami Taiga and not red-head, idiot! And fine by me, I hate playing with spineless cowards anyway!" Oh boy did Zatsuki's veins start streaming with blood all over her, "WHO DID YOU JUST CALL A SPINELESS COWARD?! Tch, It's Zatsuki Kana!" "Nice to meet you, spineless coward."

That was it, the girl couldn't handle to be around. She just stormed to the door, without a second word.

"See, said was spineless." Kagami mocked her, feeling superior. The ginger girl stopped walking and with just the same force as before, replied, "MY LUNCHBOX IS IN THE CLASSROOM, IDIOT!" That reminded the boy that he also forgot his sandwich in his classroom...awkward.

Just before Zatsuki left the rooftop completely, Kuroko decided to interrupt the tense air again, "By the way, Zatsuki-san, the coach said that if we want to become regulars, we have to come here tomorrow at 8:40." He figured that it was just his bad fate that got him in to the team with not one, but two '_not very bright'_ people.

That got the girl unguarded, making her stutter, "O-oh, Thank you for informing, Kuro-kun." '_Reliable as always, huh?'_ she thought, knowing precisely how much the blue-haired boy didn't want her on the team._ 'But wait, by *here* did he mean the rooftop?'_

_..._

"OH COME ON! Out of all the days, the alarm had to be switched off completely today, right?!" The ginger girl yelled, running with a toast in her mouth and almost chocking from getting a piece of bread into the wrong throat.

Her bag was trying to keep up with her, but in the end she had to take it into her hands so that it wouldn't fly off.

It was really close to twenty to and Zatsuki really didn't want to be late for her clubs member reinforcing...or whatever you call that stuff. What, phrases weren't her thing, alright? Just on time, she managed to come to the school's yard. But before the girl was able to run into the building and to the rooftop, a loud shout came from her destination.

"CLASS 1-B, SEAT 8, KAGAMI TAIGA! I WILL DEFEAT THE 'GENERATION OF MIRACLES' AND BECOME NUMBER ONE IN JAPAN!"_ 'Oh no you don't! At least one of them is totally mine!'_ The girl's temple was filled with rushing blood again.

She ran up. Sadly for her, a teacher noticed the running girl, "Hei! You! You're not-" The teenager didn't let him finish the sentence, because she went on ahead. And yes, her legs were hurting like crazy by now, and her lungs were out of breath...but not letting Kagami to be the only one to show off kept her really motivated.

Unfortunately, that teacher was also not too weak in character and ended up running after Zatsuki, like he was chasing after a criminal. On the other hand, he was also much shorter than her...and not exactly an athlete, giving our heroine the advantage.

After almost breaking the door from slamming it too hard with a banging opening, the girl huffed for air, surprising everybody around. "Sorry..I...am...late..." She said, taking a deep breath after every word.

No other words were produced before the girl had enough strength to jump up on to the fence and shout out what she had to shout out.

"CLASS 1-E, SEAT 20, ZATSUKI KANA! I WILL DEFEAT THE GUY THAT REJECTED ME!"

The unexpected yelled out words stammered everyone. "What? Seriously? That's so lam-" And there went another kick, this time a kick into the red-head's stomach. Sadly, the girl didn't realize that hurting those hardcore muscular abs wasn't as easy as punching a face. "Heh, that didn't-" ...Too early was it to celebrate for Kagami as she just went again and tried hitting him in the face. Though he blocked it this time. That got Zatsuki and she tried again - another block...and that went on until a certain tired out teacher finally ran in, "YOouu!" The adult stated, pointing at everyone, "How dare you do this again...-" And the lecture went on for about an hour. Everybody on the roof got an ear-full from the adult about how they cannot break the school rules and do this and that.

Sadly for Zatsuki and Kagami, they still got an extra ear-full from their cute coach, about their 'little quarrel'.

So, in the end, the coach decided to punish them by making them both sit through the whole game, while the rest of the team played basketball.

...

"Maann~, she didn't have to be so mean!" The ginger girl complained, trying to stretch her sore and already numb muscles from the training, which they ended up doing from annoyance of not being able to play. "Tch, look who's complaining." The red-head, walked past her, also stretching his arms. "What's that suppose to mean? If not for your comment, I wouldn't have bothered you at all!" Zatsuki stood up and continued walking, trying to still stretch her arms too.

"Yeah, but who goes and punches people? ... And plus I can't help it, your goal is seriously lame, it's not my fault." "Yeah, like yours is any better...'destroy the generation of miracle'...HA! Win against me first and then talk like you can actually do anything close to that, big guy." The girl's smirk grew with a satisfactory feeling.

"Tch." Kagami pronounced, "I already said that I can take you on any day and win. But those strong players...-" "They're not just strong." The girl interrupted her companion, sounding almost as if she was about to praise them, "They're also number one in self-confidence and bratiness - every single one of them."

The boy looked at Zatsuki, "You know them?" He got a bit offended, since he seemed to the only person around who just heard about them.

"What kind of question is that? Of course, I was a part of the team too, you know? I went to the boy's training a lot since I had several buddies there. Plus, the generation of miracle's captain was the big brother of our captain." The girl just answered simply, squeezing her eyes to show how disturbing that was, "Their sibling rivalry was killing, making** our**, their 'toys', life hell. The girl's coach also gave over the training schedule to Suki, the captain...god was that terrifying."

"Why're you telling me this?" The boy asked, wondering just how the girl could be so open with strangers. "If you want to involve yourself with the monsters...it's good to know a few things. Especially about Suki. Her name is taboo around Akashi, he kind of has a sister-complex... But it's not like you'll be able to catch his interest that easily. Anyway, why're you so into going against the generation of miracles? There are a huge amount of other strong players and schools that are known for their strength. I think you should get a more realistic goal."

"No way." The boy answered simply, "There is no point if the opponent is not strong. The level in Japan is way too low, so if I don't go against the strongest players, than it makes no sense." "And who are you?" The ginger girl asked rhetorically, but the boy answered almost automatically, "Yeah, yeah, I'm japanese..but since ever I moved to the US, I've been playing basketball. That ended around two years, and now I'm stuck here...where the difference in level shocked me so much, that I'm only can pity Japan." "Really?" Zatsuki raised her eye-brows, wondering just where did he go play to start thinking like that, "Are you sure you weren't just playing with some imaginary friends? That _would be_ pitiful."

"HEY!" The red-head shouted, only after what he realized that he was talking completely normally to our heroine, almost as if they were friends. His thoughts stopped, when he also realized that they were both going into the same fast-food shop.

"Are you going in or what?" His companion asked in slight irritation. From the surprise Kagami pushed the door open and walked in. And just like that, they were both ordering burgers. The waitress sweat-dropped at their orders, looking at the two giants as if they were aliens. At the same time, without knowing, the two 'giants' thought, '_Get used to it by now!'_

Zatsuki ordered half of the amount of Kagami's portion, but it was still like 5-7 burgers plus the big strawberry milkshake. The boy just walked awkwardly to his usual place. Our heroine followed him, seeing how there were two seats usually by the window. Though before she managed to even get to the table, the red-head already spilled half of his drink, getting a shock from yet another appearance of a certain blue-head.

"Kuro-kun? What are you doing here?" The ginger girl asked, getting a sweat-drop from another random meeting with the shorter boy. "Observing..the vanilla milkshake here is also pretty good." "I see.." She looked at the red-head and figured that this happened to him not for the first time. Sighing, she took an empty chair and joined her two team-mates.

"This has become quite a problem..." The shorter boy began mumbling, mostly to himself, in slight depression, "Since both Kagami-kun and Zatsuki-san already joined the club as regulars, I'm the only one who still isn't a member...Like this, I won't be able to keep my promise..." The ginger girl only managed to hear 'keep' and 'promise'. She was wondering what in the world he was talking about. So, out of pure curiosity, she asked, chewing a piece of one of the burgers, "What? Which promise?"

"To make Kagami-kun number one in Japan." Kuroko answered, looking down at the straw of his vanilla milkshake. Zatsuki almost chocked on the chicken burger that was in her mouth at the moment. "You're in this too?!" And with one look into those quiet sky-blue eyes, she understood that it wasn't a jock. "Oh, come on! I understand that this idiot doesn't have a brain, but why you too, Kuro-kun?! You're not planning to actually beat every single one of them, right?! Anyway, if you were...why did you come to Seirin then?!"

The blue-haired boy looked up at the standing up, excited tomboy, who just stood there, waiting for his reply.

"Why did you come to Seirin? Don't you have a similar goal?" He just answered by asking questions. This made the girl freeze and blush, "W-well...I had my own reasons..." "My point taken." '_This little devil!'_ She thought, sitting down again slowly.

"Well, what are gonna do now?" The red-head asked, getting sort of bored to be in the side lines. "Your and the coach's words inspired me. That's why for now my reason for playing basketball is to try to make you and the team number one in Japan." Zatsuki looked completely confused, "Wait- what words?! Why is Kuro-kun saying something so cheesy? What are you talking about?!... Why do I feel like an outsider to this?"

"S-still saying embarrassing things...well, whatever, as long as I get to crush the 'Generation of Miracles'..." The red-head announced tsunderely, completely ignoring the girl's questions, "And it's not 'try', you're gonna make us number one, right?!" His cool look didn't work and not to make it look any more awkward he wanted to walk off. Though before that happened, Zatsuki reached out for his jacket, making him trip from off-balance.

"What was tha-" He tried to complain to her, but the ginger girl, already stood up, taking her tray with only trash left on it, "I guess I'll be taking my leave, since I'm not welcome in the company..." Her walk was rather clumsy, but she still didn't turn around. Kagami felt a bit bad now. Being an obvious awkward person, he didn't really know how to show affections, but it wasn't like he didn't care about hurting people.

"Let it be, Kagami-kun. She doesn't get upset from being ignored." Kuroko, sipped the last drops of his milkshake. Though he did wonder if she could be less obvious sometimes. Then again, it wouldn't be Zatsuki, if she wasn't. How can someone else get so mad about not being able to understand what the talk is about, rather than being ignored?

_'Ah, now I know how I could become a member.._.' The boy thought, wondering just how his middle school classmate's originality led him to think of it. The brain works in curious ways, he guessed...

...

Zatsuki walked to school in depression, mumbling things to herself, "How could they not tell me what's going on...Kuro-kun and Kaga-kun are just so mean...Anyway, what was with the cheesy talk...They couldn't possibly be..." And a blush grew on her cheeks. She stopped out of no where and from realization tried to get rid of the thought, '_No way in the seven seas!'_ Though the thought really was appealing. "NO!" The girl told herself. She believed in Kuroko's devilish pureness. There was no way that he and the red-head started to like each other. Just no way.

Zatsuki blamed her Teiko team-mates, who were as close to a devil, as one could possibly be. They were the ones who ruined her naiveness, by introducing her to the dark world of fanart and -fiction. Yup, it was their fault, not the blue-haired boy's. So, she shouldn't start thinking unnecessary. Plus to it all, a headache rose from her over-thinking. '_Great...'_ the girl commented in her head sarcastically, going back to her depressed mood.

Oddly enough, in school there was a lot of noise, making her even more extremely curious than the day before about her team-mates suspicious talk.

Looking over all her shorter classmates the girl saw a digged out sentence in the school's football field. It said, "I will make you number one in Japan!"

_'It couldn't have been..._' she sweat-dropped, wondering just when Kuroko became so...extreme. "Naahh~, it wouldn't possibly be him-" But then, out of no where, the blue-haired teen popped out, sitting right next to her standing position. She wanted to scream again, but held it in this time, trying not to catch too much attention. 'No, he's definitely the quiet, not-always-realistic, extreme type.' Zatsuki thought, trying to imagine Seirin becoming number one in Japan. '_Well...it does have a nice ring to it_.' She finally agreed, getting the fact that they will also have to play against _him_ if they're to become the best,_ 'Definitely sounds nice.'_

_..._

"Umm...captain, where is the coach?" The ginger girl asked, not seeing the brunette anywhere, "It's not like she's skipping practice, right?" The glasses senior looked at his taller junior and kept silent. "She really isn't here..." He realized, looking around.

They were just having a break from their half-an-hour practice game. Kagami and Zatsuki were in the opposite teams, giving them the fair play against each other. The girl understood then, that she really was underestimating the red-head by quite a bit. His huge built wasn't just for looks, she noticed. The boy was also pretty quick and sharp on his feet. In general, it was tough to play against him...especially with a certain blue-head being on his team. The game was so intense, that all the players were huffing at the break, trying to balance their breathing rate again.

"This is bad..." The captain stated, looking at the door, as if a monster will come out of it soon. And then, with a bit louder voice said, "You better be preparing yourself, everyone. If that girl is skipping practice...that means our opponent for the next practice game is very dangerous." This got everyone's attention. And as if speaking of the devil, the girl came into the gym-hall, humming a tune.

"Good evening, minna~! I'm sorry that I came late, I'll come back in a minute~." the brunette had sparkles and hearties covering her background, "And just so you know, I just arranged a practice match with a school that had one of the Generation of Miracles in it~!" Giggling she then added, "Well, I'll be off now~."

The information took some time to process, but eventually everyone chorused a "WHAT?!"

Zatsuki face-palmed, looking at the red-head, who seemed to have just gotten his favourite toy and not even on his birthday.

The coach then ran in again, almost seeming to be on the same level of happiness as the certain freshman. "So, the school that got a practice match with is Kaijou High~ and yes~ one of the Generation of Miracles just joined them this year~! Not bad for an opponent, right?!" Her eyes sparkled in the most disturbing way, making the whole team give up. Their coach was being as Spartan as ever before.

The captain sighed heavily, "It's Kise Ryota, right? Isn't he..that rumoured model?" The ginger girl's ears almost stood up_, 'Kise Ryota?! No way...to have him as the first opponent...'_ Her grin grew as wide as that of a Cheshire cat. Oh, that stupid model was going to get it from her this time~!

"KYAA~!" A huge crowd of screaming and yelling was heard. The whole team turned to the door, where the voice was coming from.

In the middle of a huge crowd of girl stood one tall, blond, pretty handsome guy in a grey suit (school uniform, everyone guessed). He was a bit stiff and awkwardly smiling at the girls, who were just pushing him to sign an autograph for them. "I really didn't want this to happen...guess it can't be helped..Sorry for the trouble..This will take a few minutes..just wait, please..." He sighed, trying to finish the work as fast as possible.

And just as the boy promised, he was done in a few minutes. It scared a few of the Seirin players, how professionals are super quick at signing their autographs.

"I'm sorry for the trouble, though it's kind of normal, since I have to keep up with my reputation." The aura around Kise sparkled, almost blinding most of the people present. Flipping his bangs away from his eyes, he continued enthusiastically, "Anyway, when I heard our next opponent is going to be Seirin, I realized it was the school that Kurokochi went to~. And since we got along the best, I came to say hi~!" "We didn't really..." The blue-haired boy replied quietly, wondering just how exactly did he get along with the sparkling ball of light.

"Burn!" The ginger girl said, wanting to high-five Kuroko. Though the shorter boy just looked at her as if she was an alien.

The crying blond, who was almost ready to go to the emo corner, complained, "That's mean, Kurokochi~! And who _are_ you even? You've got some seriously long hair for a guy though...no wonder Kurokochi thinks of you as an alien." He commented, wanting to do the 'burn'-high-five too (though he kept it in, not to look uncool in front of his next opponents), looking at Zatsuki. At the moment, the girl had again a super tight sportsbra and a couple of layers of bandages to cover her bouncy chest...and with her hair in a tight ponytail, it was pretty hard to distinguish her from a normal boy (with long hair).

It hurt her that the blond she despised so much, since_ ever_ he joined Teikou's basketball team, didn't remember her...but then again, maybe it was her luck.

The whole team was looking at the three former Teikou student in silence. There was heavy dose of unfriendliness between every one of them was very weird, even though one of them didn't remember that the other was from the same school.

Kagami, being the sweet darling that he was, crushed that atmosphere by throwing a basketball with enough strength to make Kise cry in complaint again. "That hurts, you know?" He whined, blowing on his palm (in slight sarcasm), which just caught the ball.

"Sorry for intruding in your heart-warming reunion," Sarcasm...Zatsuki wondered if she should tell him a few tips about using it in proper places later. "But how about a small warm-up, being my opponent, ikemen-kun?" Ah, there went another sarcasm. The girl sighed in disappointment, she did want to see now how strong Kagami's level really is...but Kise...he was the only other Generation of Miracle that she really wanted to beat to a pulp.

The blond thought for a moment about something, but then just smiled and took of his jacket, "Well, I guess I could, as a thanks for showing me something good before." _'Suspicious...'_ the girl wondered just how next he was going to try and show off.

And just as both her and Kuroko sighed, the red-head was already on the floor, looking stunt at the blond, who just landed from his dunk.

"You really like the floor, huh?" The ginger girl asked, offering him a hand to stand up. The boy blushed slightly from the second lose. He took the hand, but didn't thank her, "I was just checking if the rumours were true."

Zatsuki didn't pay attention to that already. In fact, she just processed what the blond tried saying.

"Please give me Kurokochi, I want to play basketball with him on the same team again." "WHAT?!" The team choired, sticking their hair upside-down.

"I'm serious! You're awesome, Kurokochi! And you're wasting your talent here-" Zatsuki couldn't stand any more of that pretty boy talk. "Sorry, blondie, but as you can see here, Kuro-kun came exactly to this school. Like it or not, your charms work only on wannabe barbies." She was already standing almost a metre away from him. There was no way she was going to let him get away with this.

"What? I wasn't talking to you, ginger. And if you can't see, I'm trying to put some sense into him-" "You mean that idiotic motto you and all your buddies used - the 'Winning is everything' thing? That's sense? You only want him to win against the rest of the Generation of Miracles, since you're the weakest one of them." "What?! Don't be ridiculous! I just like to play with Kurokochi, because he's awesome and I respect him. Seeing him in this place makes me feel bad conscious, because he can be doing so much better!" "Ha! Bad conscious...you know how ridiculous that sounds? Fine, you know what? Since you are our next opponents, why not make a deal. If we win, Kuro-kun will stay with us. If you do, he'll join Kaijou. Deal?"

This stunt everyone, especially the boy in question.

Though Kise only smirked in reply, "This is way too risky for you, long-hair, but oh well...guess I'll go with the easy way. Deal." And as he was about to leave, he waved at his former team-mate, "Bye, Kurokochi~, see at the match~."

Open. Slam.

Hate.

There was irritative aura coming out of the usually emotionless boy. But the girl just smiled at him, "What? I just went through the trouble of motivating you to play, right? We just have to win then. Wasn't that your plan to begin with?"

The coach sighed heavily, their first-years really are going to make their life more troublesome than ever...

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And here is the third chapter~! Yeah, I know it's a bit longer than the other two, but I really wanted to have all of this here. I hope you liked it. It took me some time to think of how to put everything together, but I think I kinda like the end result.

Oh, and about Kise and Zatsuki's relationship you'll find out about in the next chapter~, so look forward to it~!

Ciao~,

your lazy author.


	4. 4 mommy and blondy

disclaimer: I don't own KNB, except for my Oc (s?)

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chapter 4:

_mommy and blondie_

Zatsuki came home abnormally late on the day before the practice match. Their coach, Riko Aida, decided that there was not going to be the slightest possibility for them to lose and give away one of their special aces. Strong or not, there was no way she was going to let go of such an adorabl- *ahem* good player (in his own sense) go. Anyway, the brunette was determined to win even more than usually (and you probably get that means it's a huge thing, right?).

This is why the whole team stayed up until the latest possible, practising and trying to come up with strategies.

"For lovely sake, G.o.d!" The ginger girl let out, before crashing herself onto the sofa, which was the closest soft spot for sleeping in her house. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depends on how you look at it), her sports bag out-weighted her and the girl's whole body rolled down onto the carpet. The carpet happened to be unexpectedly cozy and soft, so Zatsuki, after a very long minute of thought on the subject, decided that it was fine for her to stay in that position until the very morning.

Nevertheless, the idea had been broken into pieces when the girl heard a sudden noise coming from upstairs. That made her jump on her feet in alert.

'It couldn't be tou-san...he's suppose to come in an hour or two from work...nii-chan is abroad..burglars can't get through because of our annoying security...' She tried listening all the possibilities, but only in the end of the list did she realize who it really was.

All the colours that have been on her face had suddenly gone.

"Sweetheart, is that you?" A voice called out from up the stairs. It was a woman's voice with a strong German accent, but every single word which she pronounced was clearly heard.

The ginger girl wasn't quite sure how to reply, so she just answered with a, "H-hai."

"Oh, that's great! I missed you so badly, my own little darling daughter!" The voice sounded more excited and more rapid steps were heard coming down the stairs.

Zatsuki was wondering if she could go and hide somewhere...sadly, half way through her brilliant plan, she remembered that it's quite impossible to hide with her size_. 'Damn height...'_ she cursed.

"Come here-!" The woman finally came into the living room, showing herself to our heroine.

The woman was a perfect, tall ginger with a short bob haircut that looked sophisticated for her age. Her soft layer of make-up was professionally put, so that all the unnecessary things on her face would disappear, but not completely conceal her early wrinkles, all in all, a natural look. She didn't have many accessories, except for the very primitive golden ring on her left-hand, showing that she's married and small golden earrings. The simple dress on her gave a very calming, yet a natural beauty aura.

The only thing out of place was her shocked expression, as she looked upon her daughter.

"W-welcome back, kaa-san." Zatsuki managed to mumble, bowing down in a japanese manner, which she was surprised to have.

Understanding the horrifying expression on her mother's face, the girl regretted to be so lazy and not change back into her school's uniform back at school.

The shock went away and got replaced by a calm, but very strict motion.

After a minute of silence, the mother walked out of the living room and called out, "TAKASHI!" The more like a command statement was answered with a rushing noise from the upstairs, which was coming down, "Y-yes, dear. Did something happen?"

The short, round, japanese man looked confused and spaced-out.

"Yes, something did happen." The man tried hard to list everything that he could've possibly been forgotten, but nothing came to him, "What?"

"Your daughter is wearing a guy's sports uniform carelessly and she looks like a guy even with her absolutely terrifyingly bad taken care of long hair. Why?" The father looked from his pretty wife to his teenage daughter and back.

"Umm..." "Oh, don't try to come up with some ironic jokes now. This is very serious! I've put my heart and soul into this creature and, is this what I get?! Who's going to be taking over my name and continuing my modelling career?! I've only got one daughter! Look at her height! It's perfect! Girls waste thousands on stupid surgeries for this kind of height _just_ to get into modelling! But why in the world are you dressed up as a guy, huh?! Don't tell me you want to become a boy now! I was fine with you playing basketball in middle school since it was a girl's team. But a guy's in high school?! High school is all about that girly romance! This is a waste!"

Zatsuki looked at her mother. And after a moment of staring just sighed. There was no way getting around this woman...and she knew it. On the other hand, she didn't want to fight her. Every muscle in her body hurt and the match which was taking place just the next day wasn't going to be an easy one. Rest was calling for her.

"Kaa-san, I'm sorry to be a disappointment to you. But I've got a match tomorrow against a strong school, so, I'll go and not disturb you any longer with my presence." The girl yawned, picked up her sports bag and walked with a careless attitude up the stairs and to her own room.

When the latter had gone, the mother couldn't help but face-palm, "She's acting as an even worse teenager than her brother...whatever happened to that cuteness they both had when they were children?" She sighed and looked at her husband with an expression of utter depression.

"You should let them be. Plus, Kana just started to look happy again. I don't want to ruin it by pushing her by force on something that she doesn't have an interest in yet. It was frightening in what kind of mood she was in the third year of middle school. If not for my constant load at work, I would've probably tried looking after her with more care...but it seems I'm a bit too late for that. As a father, of course I want her to act more girly...but I think it really is just a matter of time and endurance." The man spoke, embracing his tall wife with reassurance that everything will work out.

"You, japanese and your eternal patience..." The lady smiled and returned the embrace. After beginning to feel better, she stepped away from her soft, cozy and very comforting husband. Still smiling, she sighed in defeat and went upstairs.

"Kana." The mother knocked on her daughter's door, "Open the door. I want to talk to you, alright? No matter who you are, you're still my sweet child and there is no way you'll ever be a disappointment to me...(just to yourself and the society - she mumbled).Of course it's not very pleasant that my own daughter doesn't like things that I do...Oh, do come out and lets have some tea. I just arrived all the way from Europe, give me a break, alright. On top of this, I brought your favourite belgian waffles and chocolate." Her voice sounded as if she didn't just scold the girl two-five minutes ago.

The door creaked open slowly. "Is that true..?" The ginger girl mumbled, sniffing in slight sadness from the words before.

"I always speak the truth, you know that. Now come...actually, go first wash yourself...and your hair too, your smell like a pig all over!" Yeah...she really did not hide her feelings.

Though otherwise, the rest of the evening kicked off quite nicely. Zatsuki and her love for european sweets was as strong as her love for basketball...and as you already know by now, that's pretty darn strong.

Her mother also ended up telling all these magnificent stories about what was happening to her and how, where and for what reasons her shoots kept on travelling from one end of Germany to the other and around Europe.

The atmosphere around their diner table was so delightful that it almost seemed like a prefect family again. The only problem was...that...when the girl, for the first time, looked at the clock...it was already three o'clock by their time and her mother was only now starting to feel a bit tired.

Gulping, Zatsuki rose, apologised for her leave and ran to bed. Sadly, she also couldn't fall asleep, making her life twice as hard.

At least that was her excuse she used to convince herself that it was alright to wake up so late.

Putting on her uniform, the girl couldn't help herself but hug her mother, who was half asleep from jet-lag with a cup of coffee doing a poor job at waking the lady up. "I've got a match today in a different district, I have to get there fast, so I can't stay for breakfast..." She took a toast from the plate that was made for her and ran out, shouting to her father that she's leaving.

"Shitshitshitshitshit" The girl muttered under her breath as she kept running with full speed to the train station. She could already feel the coach's wrath on her. Oh, boy could she visualise it clearly. Luckily, Kaijou wasn't as far from Seirin as she thought it would be, that's why even if she was late, it would be like five-ten minutes.

The school was huge. And no, not just big-with-lots-of-buildings-attached-it sort of huge. No, it was as confusing as a super complicated maze...or so Zatsuki thought, running through the school's yard - twice.

Then, after finally giving up, the girl finally noticed a crowd of girls looking at her. And she decided to ask if they possibly knew where the match was held.

"Hei, he's coming this way!" One of the squealed to her friends, with a slight blush.

"Oh, please, like a guy hasn't talked to you before. Plus he looks gay." Another replied disapprovingly.

"Hina-chan! Don't be rude! I bet he's been bullied in his childhood by people like you." The girl commented strictly.

"I agree. But I bet they were just jealous of his cute and girl's smooth-like features. Though I think the bullies might've won. He seems to be trying to look more manly with his careless look (though the long hair is kind of...). He seems also a little awkward~. It's adorable!"

"That's true! That makes it so cute! And look at his height! And he's wearing a sports uniform! That's so cool!"

"Is that a basketball uniform...wait, I think I saw a group of people with the same uniform coming to our school...Wait! Is he-?"

"Uh-umm...sumimasen, but c-could you please tell me where the basketball practice game is held?" The girls startled in surprise, shocked at the 'boy's' rather more than usual gentle voice. The whole group was almost 1/3 shorter than Zatsuki, making them feel odd, since the girl was feeling awkward in asking them, not being used to talking to girls.

"Of-Of course!" The all said in a chorus and thought '_CUTE!_' as if they were triplets.

"A-arigatou." The ginger girl stroke the back of her head with her hand in nervousness. She wasn't quite aware what was going through the group's heads, but her casual boyish attitude with her right hand in the pocket of her pants and care-free look, was giving off another type message than she wanted to give.

"Which school do you go to?" The first girl looked at our heroine, starting to walk by her side, "If you're having a practice match with our school's team, then you must be pretty good to be approved of." "It's Seirin. And yes, we're awesome!" Zatsuki finally broke out of her awkwardness, understanding that talking to normal girls isn't that hard after all.

"Oh~! Really? I would like to see that. Though you'll probably have problems playing against our Kise. He's a Generation of Miracles..or whatever you called it...I don't care really. He's so cute, but because of his popularity, it's sort of starts to become annoying. What's your name anyway? I'm Kurowa Sakura." "Zatsuki."

...The rest of the walk was about the same. The girl enjoyed her female company so much, that she almost forgot the threat of her coach.

That's why, when the girls brought her to the sportshall, she didn't think of the consequences of coming so much later.

"Well, you're here, Zatsu-" "Z.a.t.s.u.k.i._-k.u.n_." a low, terrifying tone started coming towards her, and before she knew it, her stomach was already spilling all her vital organs from the rough kick that it just received. "S-senpai..." She was trying to hold on for life. This scared the group of Kaijou girls, who were running around our heroine like little chicks.

"I don't care for your excuse, but if you don't get to court in five seconds, I'll make sure your life ends up being hell!" The ginger girl tried to protest, but looking at her senpai's eyes, she knew that was her final statement. With that in mind she ran to the court.

"It's alright. thanks to Kagami's welcoming break through, we had to resume the match...now on a full court." The captain summarised the beginning of the game with a huge (and sort of nervous) grin. Looking the same way, the girl noticed that one of the basketball's boards was without a basket. "Oi...don't tell me..." The girl looked back at her team-mates, who were either smiling or nodding, to Kagami and grinned. Giving the red-head a shoulder punch, she began laughing, "AHAHA~! Awesome, Kaga-kun! You've risen on my list of interesting players!"

"You're the one to laugh. What's with the chilling late-coming?! Kise wouldn't stop talking about you chickening out on your bet." The boy puffed, crossing his hands. "Chicken out?" Zatsuki felt her temple flowing with blood, "Chicken out, eh?! Lets see who's chickening out, blondie! I'll break him!" She commented with her competitive pride peaking out as intense fire.

She saw the boy in question across her in a blue uniform that said "Kaijou, 7". Not only that, there was a huge crowd of squeals behind her, to whom the said blond was waving to casually. She gave a glare. Sighing, the girl just went to change as quickly as possible. When she came back, the game started.

Everything was so quick that...Ha! Zatsuki almost cried herself to death from too much laughter in her head. Speed was something the Teikou girl's team was famous for. And this..compared to that, could even be called normal. Though one difference was, which surprised the girl, was their strength. Playing a whole team of people your own height was also not something she was accustomed to. That's why, it took a while for her to get out of her shock.

"Oi, Zatsuki, concentrate." The captain yelled at the girl, which made her move instinctively again. The high pace of the game made her think slower than usual but move faster. Dribbling the ball, which was passed to her just a minute ago, Zatsuki just ran to the enemy's side, trying to avoid conflicts with Kaijou's players. And even if they were close, she used her swiftness to her own advantage. And right when she was a metre away, the girl jumped, throwing the ball to go in.

Though just when she came down, the opposite team already had the ball and began running to the other side. "Matteyo." The girl muttered, running after them. Only then did she see the tension between Kagami and Kise. The two were just blowing the basketball in its baskets like it was natural to play with such power. Kise's were obviously stronger, but Kagami wasn't falling behind too much._ 'Oi! Are you forgetting that I was the one who did the bet?!'_ She wanted to yell at them, but sadly just 'emo-cornered' herself emotionally.

For the first time Zatsuki felt powerless. '_So, this is what a boy's game is like?'_ She looked at her own palm which was already starting to shake a little from tiredness._ 'Awesome!'_ Her eyes sparkled in delight.

Grinning unconsciously, the girl went with her full strength...though by then, their coach asked for a time-out. Looking around, the girl saw everyone in her team sweating and breathing like their life dependent on it. 'Was it really that intense?' she wondered, not feeling her own tiredness due to too much excitement.

Aida-senpai gave out the water battles and towels, sighing in disturbance. "To think that even Kagami can't handle Kise..." "I think it's going pretty well, though" The girl's mouth twitched a bit, "It's kind of annoying to see how you're going against the copycat...Though it's not going to last long. I saw this happening with several opponents the blond was playing against. Plus, he also seems to be not fully serious about this. It's kind of pissing me off. But is this seriously how most games go? This is so cool!" Zatsuki's eyes sparkled again, freaking everyone around her.

The boys and the coach then turned towards her and just then realised that it was her first actual game (even if it was a practice). _'You gotta be kidding me!'_ They all thought, looking at the extremely happy tall girl, who was disguising herself as a guy at the moment.

On the other side, with the Kaijou, two similar girls looked at Zatsuki with an emotionless hatred.

"Ne, nee-chan, that's definitely..."

"-Hai."

Their faces turned around with bubbly happiness, as they heard their love speaking, "Thank you, Ryo-chan, Ran-chan." The blond said, answering with the same smiling face. "Ryota-kun, you're too sweet. You should show them what you're made of~, nya~!" The first twin replied, making a cute cat noise in the end of her sentence.

"Well, they seem bothersome..even all the senpais are huffing~. Ran, you shouldn't press...they're just warm-ups for Ryota-kun anyway. Though I've got to mention that it seem your popularity is dropping, Ryota-kun~, that idiot Zatsu-..number 12 is taking some of your light from the girls above. You shouldn't play around too much, ne~?" The other said, pointing at the crowd of girls, who were standing on the second floor balcony.

"Wouldn't girls be mostly happy if their boyfriend is becoming less popular with other girls?" Their captain asked, raising an eye-brow. He was drinking the water from the bottle, already relaxing a bit from the intense match. He still couldn't really understand how anybody could date both of the twins...well, they were doing a pretty good job as managers and he had nothing to complain about...but still, it was weird.

"Now, now, captain, you should know better than that." Ryo looked at the captain, giving a little bit of a flirty look towards him, "Girls want their boyfriends to be the best. That's as far as it goes. The rest lays in our own hands~. Right, Ryota-kun~?" The girl looked at the blond, who just laughed it off. For him, sometimes the twins were a bit too intense, but they were definitely cute, so - whatever, "Sure."

"Alright! Now concentrate, you little brats! I won't accept a hit like this on my-.. Kaijou's pride!" Everybody in the team rolled their eyes. Kise still didn't tell them about the bet, but he knew that even without it, there is enough tension. And so, the first quarter continued. He was determined to win and get Kuroko on their team. He was Kise Ryota after all. He never lost and he won't this time either!

Though just like that, the team already strengthened the centre, not letting the blond to pass through to the basket. Kaijou's captain was ready to pick a fight for looking down at the rest of the team. But instead he took the ball and went for a three-pointer. Unfortunately for him, he didn't measure that somebody would be able to get him.

"Sorry, but Kagami isn't the only member in our team either." The ginger slapped the ball from his hand and ran to the other side of the court. That was actually the first time they actually saw Zatsuki as a threat. It only then hit them then that the 'guy' was the same height as Kise, even if he looked weaker than a usual guy. The dunk was also a huge surprise. How could he get there so fast?

Looking at the shocked players, the girl smirked, causing a few unnoticed squeals from the second-floor balcony.

A dark aura was coming out of the Kaijo's players. They wouldn't let a mere first-year to look down on them. And a second later, the defence against her doubled, making her click her tongue in annoyance.

The game continued still with a back and forth battle between Seirin and Kaijou without a minute of rest.

In the end of the second quarter, when Zatsuki's strength wasn't enough and Kagami's lack of experience finally began showing something clicked in their heads. And Kuroko finally stepped in, feeling like his idiotic team-mates had an enlightenment for finally thinking of including him in. The difference between the teams also finally began to shrink again. They were ten points off now.

"Zatsuki-san, if that's as far as your resolution goes, then you'll never win against _him_." The blue-haired boy said, passing by the girl, making herself doubt her own skills. Though that doubt didn't last for long. "Look who's talking, shadow." The girl grinned, looking at the, running towards their ace, boy.

The shadow-light combination that Kuroko was with Aomine before, always made her jealous. She also wanted to find someone who would be able to read her movements and play along with them as if they were one. It kind of had a romantic tone to it, didn't it? The girl sighed looking at the blue-haired starting to make another bond like that with the his new light. Why was it so easy for him to do something like that?He was supposedly an actual boy, so why? As you probably have guessed, It's not like the girl didn't want the girly romance that her mother kept bugging her about. But not understanding or ever talking normally to girls as friends makes it kind of hard on her.

The game proceeded. And at the end of the third quarter, they tied up. This shocked Kaijou and surprised in excitement Seirin. The twin managers, chewed on the very tip of their taken care of nails. Their glare was hateful and unpleasant, but nobody noticed, since they were standing behind everyone and looked cheerful as somebody turned around.

"Nee-chan, do you think that Ryota-kun knows?" "I doubt it...otherwise he wouldn't act like a complete stranger to her. And it's better that way. He won't ever find out and we can whatever we want." The devilish smile was replied with a similar chuckle.

The final quarters was an ultimate battlefield. Zatsuki wasn't sure why she felt uncomfortable, having a somewhat shivering feeling down her spine, almost as if something bad was talked about her behind her back.

Kagami dunked the ball in as a gift he got from Kuroko, who passed the ball with unknown speed. This got Kise completely crack. The aura around him changed into something that could rival the one of his girlfriends.

Getting the passed ball from one of his team-mates, his eyes looked as if they were looking at a prey and his figure became more freed up, with his hands loosely hanging and legs standing stable on the ground. His dribbling increased in speed or was that running? The ginger girl couldn't quite tell. But she knew the move, it was way too familiar to her. And it annoyed the hell out of her to see the blond's version of it.

He obviously got a basket. The girl would've probably killed him if he didn't.

"I won't lose to anyone, not even Kurokoch-" "Say that after you actually win, blondie." The girl felt the edge of her mouth twitching in irritation, "And when you try to remember somebody's move, you should do a better job." She took the ball and did exactly the same thing just much lower, almost on ground level as she was running and dribbling the ball. This made it extra hard to steal the ball from her. The movement through the court was done in half Kise's time and by the time she got to the basket, there was enough for a momentum to jump higher, giving her enough time make a quick basket.

It clicked then in his mind, "Zatsukichi?!" He yelled out with full surprise. '_Finally_.' the ginger girl rolled her eyes. "Right. There was only one person who could do something as weird as that! But wait, why?" "Because, stupid blond." The girl glared at him, not really knowing what he was asking about. "Eh, why am I stupid? Unlike you, I always passed my exams, baka Zatsukichi!" The boy made a duck face, feeling slightly hurt for being called stupid. The girl really wanted to strangle him there and then.

"Well, anyway, this makes things interesting. I should've known, only someone like you would make a bet like that too." But the mood around them didn't lighten up. In fact, it worsened. Lightining bolts of electric currents went between them. Your old rivals will stay your rivals until the very day you die. In a way, it's nice. In the other, it's killing. "And I'm sticking to it, because we'll win this match."

Kise was a famous model guy who was always good at _everything_ he did. Everything, including basketball. How he managed to get to the first string in two weeks notice...was mind-blowing for Zatsuki. The worst part of it, was that Aomine noticed it and played one-on-ones with him for the fun of it. That annoyed the hell out of our heroine. Not to mention the flocks of girls always surrounded her, making her feel somehow beaten in femininity.

On the other hand, Zatsuki was an out-going, careless tomboy who was always in the middle of the fun. She was friends with pretty much all of the boys in Teikou, going from the very violent ones to the super shy and nerdy types. Being popular with the girls somehow always lead Kise to being sort of out-casted from the guys group. He never really had big amounts of good friends, he didn't even know anyway to even get them. If he had any, it was probably only by some miraculous reason. And the fact that a hopeless case like Zatsuki could walk up to any guy and become buddies in less than a minute was kind of annoying him.  
Kise knew about Zatsuki's crush on the Teikou's ace, but he never, although he had no ill intentions, really gave a damn about it. To him, the girl always seemed to be somehow too violent ( and somehow that violence always vibrated on him). In his opinion, Aomine did a good job rejecting her. Of course, now he understood that the idea might have been a bit wrong.

Kuroko and Kagami's partnership's improvement together with Zatsuki's sudden enlightenment on her part achieved Seirin to win by two scores.

There was a little wave of realization after the last second finished. Only when Kise finally pronounced, "We..lost? But I never lose..."

It got to everyone then, "We won!" Zatsuki high-fived Kagami, who was in just as high spirit as her, "Kuro-kun! We-" Before she was able to finish her sentence, sobs were starting to come from the blond's direction. "Oh, you've _got_ to be kidding me!" She looked at him in a disgusted way, "Are you a ma-" "Now, now, Zatsuki-_kun_...you shouldn't be too harsh on your opponents, ne~?"

That voice...oh, boy.

"Ryo, Ran...what a pleasure..." The ginger girl turned to look at the twins, who were already petting and trying to cheer up their boyfriend. She completely forgot that the two devils were actually _dating_ Kise Ryota. Zatsuki didn't know how they got him to date both of them...but knowing how inseparable they are, it was really hard to imagine them dating two different people actually. That would be just odd.

"Oi, girls, get off him! The boy's right! Act like a man! And the fact that you have never lost before is pissing me off badly! Get the word '_revenge'_ into your dictionary! It's useful in cases like these." Kaijou's captain kicked their ace, lecturing him like a parent.

"jee~, captain~! Don't spoil Kise's body with your kicking all the time, nya~! Well, whatever..." One of the twins rolled her eyes away, as the said guy looked at her threateningly.

"Anyway, Zatsuki-kun, why don't we have a chat with you? It's been so long since we saw you last~, you've changed a lot since then!" The other took our heroine by her hand and lead her out of the door...by force.

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Chapter 4 is out _ . I don't know what to say...so, review pls? I really love to read what you guys think. If you think there could be improvement in something, also, don't hesitate and say, I'll try my best at it. Oh, and the twins are there on purpose. And yes, Kise is dating both of them..though we'll get into that later.

Thank you very much for the reviews, favs and follows that I've gotten, I hope you'll continue liking this story as it goes on ^^.

Ciao,

your lazy author.


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